Americans Chuck Berry, Peter Sellars Named Polar Music Prize Winners

American rock and roll legend Chuck Berry and US theatre and opera director Peter Sellars have been named the recipients of this year’s Polar Music Prize, seen as Sweden’s musical Nobel.

The prize committee called the 87-year-old Mr. Berry ”a rock’n’roll pioneer” whose electric guitar has influenced artists ranging from The Rolling Stones to The Beatles.

“Every riff and solo played by rock guitarists over the last 60 years contains DNA that can be traced right back to Chuck Berry,” the committee wrote in its announcement.

Peter Sellars

Polar Music Prize

The 57-year-old Mr. Sellars will receive the prize for productions that has touched on controversial topics such as war, famine, religion and globalization. Mr. Sellars has shown that “classical music, with its violent power and complexity, has fundamentally always been and will continue to be a way of reflecting and depicting the world,” the committee wrote.

The Polar Music Prize, created in 1989 by late ABBA manager Stig Anderson, is seen as Sweden’s most prestigious musical award. Each recipient will receive a prize of one million Swedish kronor ($153,832) at an award ceremony on Aug. 26, in Stockholm.